"It is neither near nor far."
Translation:近くもとおくもないです。
19 Comments
Does anyone else find it weird that you can stick an article between nai and far/near?
I know you posted this 3 months ago, but for anyone else around "nai" isn't just a conjugation suffix, it's actually an i-adjective! The "ku" on chikaku/tooku makes them nouns and putting the article "mo" after near/far and then nai basically says "Near and far are both nonexistent" With "Nai" being the descriptor for the nouns near and far.
Which is why -nai becomes -nakatta in the past tense. That's a brilliant way to explain it, thanks!
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I take it then it is logically like the conditions of being [near, far, and not(adjective)]. That's kind of cool from a pseudo programmer sense.
Close, but the ku ending doesn't change adjectives into nouns, it's closer to an adverb. But it always has to be kept in mind that Japanese does not have nouns and adjectives as in English, we have just tried to explain Japanese through the terminology in English, and that's the closest we can get
In the translation it says, "neither, nor". That is basically what the two "mo" particles represent in the negative.
"Chigaku mo..." = "It is neither near..." "Tooku mo (nai)..." = "...nor far." And "desu" makes it polite.
It is similar in French when you form a negative. You need 2 negative particles to complete the sentence - e.g. "Je ne sais pas." ne + sais/jamais/rien= negative. Or in the "neither/nor" scenario, you use "ni" twice if I remember correctly. It has been a while since I practice French haha. (-:
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what I understand is that も means 'too' or 'also'. when attached to two words, either nouns, adjectives or adverbs, it is used to express equality or similarity. ex. 犬も猫も好きです。I like both dogs and cats.
because the sentence here is negative, も gets the equivalent of 'neither' and 'nor' in English.
I'm still new to Japanese so please correct me if I'm wrong.
That sounds about right, but I am still fairly new to understanding all the nuances of Japanese particles myself, haha. But, yes, "mo" means "too/also/as well as" in the positive but I think it also leaves room for adding things. Like, "I like both dogs and cats (as well as some other animals that I haven't mentioned yet)", instead of saying, "I ONLY like dogs and cats (and no other animals)".
Also I've been trying to find this thread for a while now because as soon as I commented the first time and got off, I realized I misspelled "chikaku" as "chigaku" ;n;
Here's a wiki on Japanese particles that I just found. It may be helpful to anyone confused about this, or any other particle usage!" http://lingwiki.com/index.php?title=Japanese_particles
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What is the difference between じゃない and ない ? In my notes I had the first word as a "not" clause
shouldn't this count as an adjective too, and be ちかい and とおい? if you add a noun at the beginning with a が particle, that would make that the noun and ちかい and とおい the adjectives, right? im still learning i'm not even sure if i'm doing anything right.
From what I gathered, if you use the lesson that goes along with this section it describes how the adjectives that end in い change when made into the negative. That's why you see く in its stead. If you're on mobile then the lesson will not be available so be sure to use a PC when you have time to sit down and study! Best of luck~
It's checking your understanding of words as well as grammar. If you translate it backwards, then it will assume that you don't understand the words correctly.
Order can completely change the tone and even the colloquial meaning of a sentence
